Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic has said that it is "normal" that opposing teams raise their performance levels against the Catalan outfit.

Barca will enter the upcoming international break off the back of a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla, their second La Liga loss of the season.

Rakitic has admitted that "it hurts to lose", but is confident that the team will pick themselves up when league matters resume later this month.

"It hurts to lose like that; we had a lot of chances. We have to pick ourselves up, every team has their lows. We've won everything and it's normal that everyone goes hard against [us]," he told reporters.

Barcelona had 28 shots against Sevilla, but their consolation goal at the Estadio Ramon came from a second-half penalty from Neymar.